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Kent State men's basketball will have a minimum of nine televised games this season. The link has a complete list.

KENT, Ohio – The Mid-American Conference has announced the largest basketball television package in league history with the Kent State men's basketball team guaranteed at least nine televised games in the upcoming 2010-11 season. The Golden Flashes are already scheduled for a total of four games on the ESPN's Family of Networks and have another five on SportsTime Ohio (STO), the new home for MAC basketball.

The Flashes will be highlighted five times on Sports Time Ohio, the new home for Mid-American Conference basketball. KSU has five of the 36 games shown by STO. Kent will make two national appearances, the first on Nov. 16 at 8:00 a.m. against Robert Morris as a part of ESPN's third annual College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon. On Dec. 9, Kent will travel to play against Florida on ESPN2.

David Carducci writes about Geno Ford's unusually high optimism for this season's team. With so many new faces but a solid basketball history, Kent truly stands as the wild card in the Eastern Division. It's pretty difficult to try to predict where each team will fall--2010's theme will be to uphold the "wait and see" approach.

On a separate note, I'm a little perplexed into the University of Akron's advertising campaign on the upcoming basketball season. The commercial details season ticket plans available for both the men's and women's programs. What's interesting is the full-screen graphic towards the beginning of the commercial.

"Witness the Zips!"

It's even in the same black and white color scheme of the old "Witness" banners we all proudly hung up to celebrate that fellow in South Beach. I understand there may be some underlying circumstances, and I even understood when the university used LeBron and "Witness" in their slogans even though James never attended UA. People loved LeBron, so why not try to pawn him off as one of Akron's own? It was smart advertising.

But is reminding people of a devastating event (in the spots world, let's keep things in perspective) that affected people all around Northeast Ohio really the best way to make people want to attend basketball games? I suppose they're saying "Forget LeBron, Witness the Zips instead," but there are ways to say that without using LeBron's own personal slogan.

Should UA still be advertising that LeBron is from Akron and associating with his slogan so openly? Maybe they aren't trying to have a tie with LeBron, but it certainly displays that message.